Bo’s boat had to be driven slowly because the motor wasn’t doing very well, but we made it to the airport. We did not know it, but one of the guys taking our luggage told us that due to the large number of illegal drugs that come through Guanaja all luggage is hand searched. Our luggage was then given to a gun carrying soldier who began to go through each piece – backpacks and all. We began praying that he couldn’t see all the medication that we were caring. Well “Jesus Take the Wheel” – He did not see any of the medications that we had for Miss Peggy for the Clinica Esperanza. There is like 7 pounds of meds spread across 2 suitcases. And I don’t mean the guy just barely looked – he took his hands and moved things around felt down the sides to see if we were carrying anything illegal. We then flew to La Ceiba where Bev almost didn’t make it through security – they asked her if she had a knife in her backpack. I bet they searched her backpack for a good 10 minutes before letting her go. John just sat back with a smile on his face saying, “I sure am going to miss you.” We have no idea what they saw in the x-ray scan. Then off to Roatan and one last scan of the luggage. We made it through with no problems. We sat down to get our act together and ate a little lunch. John rented us a car. We headed to the Clinic to see if Miss Peggy was there. Found out that she has been in the states and won’t be back for another week. We can’t wait to give her the meds and the stories behind them. Then we went looking for Casa Isabella where Carlos Gonzales owns a house and apartments that mission teams can stay in. Just a little side note: Carlos and his family know Jason Furrow. Jason is my son in law David Furrow’s cousin. We met Jason and his family once in Indiana. Jason lives up in the mountains outside of La Ceiba as a missionary. Now we knew Carlos from 2 years ago and Jason suggested a few weeks back via David to get a hold of a guy named Carlos Gonzales and he would help us. Just sayin’ “It’s a small world”. Well, that evening we were able to borrow Elmer and Andrea Bush’s cell phone setup as a wifi hotspot and get an email off to our three girls. It was not long before we had a Skype session going. It was so good to see and talk with them. In Guanaja we had no access to the outside world. Elmer has invited us to go with him tomorrow to visit a school and community where he gets to tell them bible stories and about the love of Jesus.
Our last full day in Guanaja. After breakfast the gang went down to the dock where Grandma was cutting off the outside of 4 coconuts. I think she had done that before. She was using a meat cleaver. They grate the coconut then add water and flour to it along with spices. Then you strain it and that is what will be used to cook the crabs in. Then she started working on the crabs. They were washed and cut in two. Washed again in lemon water. The lemon gets off the yucky stuff on the crabs. Bev got to help clean the crabs. Marta had already been cooking the iguana. Bev also helped grate the coconut and watch the ladies cook. After the iguana was cooked, Grandma gave us a piece to try. After the crabs were cooked she showed us how to crack and eat them. So at lunch we had iguana (which is a delicacy and very expensive on Guanaja), fried chicken, and crab legs with rice and plantains. Around 4:00 pm grandma, Brenda, Michelle, and a girl that worked for them named Ingrid had to go home to Mich. We road in the boat with them to take them home. Bo said we will walk around for about an hour. After we saw where Grandma and the girls lived, we had about an hour to explore so we began to ask around about Richard Hurlston. This is the guy we met 3 times in the matter of about 1 hour 2 years ago. We asked a man if he knew English and then asked if he knew Richard and where he lived. He said follow this road up a hill and then go right and up the hill and his house will be on your left. It is a yellow house and you can’t miss it. Can you believe – he could have lived anywhere in the 5 towns along that road, but no, he lived up the hill from where we dropped off Grandma and the girls. Even better, he was at home and we got to talk to him. We enjoyed our visit even though it lasted only about 15 minutes. We gave him John’s cell number and really hope he calls. He seemed depressed about the state that Guanaja was in especially the economy and the education that the children were getting. Of all the places we could have docked the boat and we were so close to Richard’s house – God is good. We walked back to the dock and Captain Bo got there about 30 minutes late. We are definitely on island time. John informed Bo our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00 am in the morning. So John asked, “What time should we be at the boat to head to the airport?” His response was 9:30, maybe 9:45 am – Really! We are now both at the room and packing up to fly to Roatan (medications and all).
John was down at the dock by 5:00 am to go trolling again with Bo (of course Bo did not show up until 5:30 am – island time you know). Success – John caught a 5 pound tuna. [Bev’s account – After breakfast, Michelle asked if I wanted to go find some sea grapes. I jumped at the chance. So we went down the beach where we went crabbing and there was a beautiful tree with hanging sea grapes. Michelle kept saying “Arg” – I asked her if she was a pirate and she said yes. We had a great time. If you can’t reach the grapes you hit them off with a long stick. We also picked some plums – they were not like our plums at home. Grandma had taken the top off two green coconuts with her machete. She gave John and I each one to drink. I felt like I was in the movie Cast Away. For lunch Marta fried John’s tuna. It was delicious. Grandma came by telling John something in Spanish – we had no clue what she was saying – Bo interpreted – she said “go back to the reef and catch another fish, it was good”.] After lunch we went to a popular place with a reef called Michael’s Rock to snorkel. For some reason the water wasn’t very clear so there were not as many fish. It was still awesome but we were a little disappointed. Tonight for dinner we had crab something, made out of the crabs we had caught the night before. [Bev’s account of the evening – After dinner John was set up to fish and I went crab hunting with Grandma and Brenda. We were after the big blue crabs. We caught about half a bucket full. As we were walking back toward the dock, to my right was a big iguana on the beach near the water. Including its tail maybe 4 ½ feet long. Grandma and Brenda started whacking it and I just shined my light on it. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It started swimming out into the ocean to far for them to get to it. I continued to shine my flashlight on it and soon it was headed back towards the beach. I took the stick from Grandma and asked if they wanted it dead. “Yes!” So Brenda and I were running up to the beach to catch up to the iguana. We were hitting it while it was still in the water and then it turned to go towards the jungle on the beach. I stepped on its tail and then knocked him out. I “thought” that he was dead. They were so excited and it was a big one. Grandma grabbed him by the tail and I grabbed the bucket of crabs and we made it back to the dock. I was real excited to show John what we had been up to. After pictures the iguana started coming alive and scared us to death. But we killed it, again. Grandma took the machete and cut his head off and then she skinned and gutted it. Then she worked on the crabs with John’s help. What a night – it was great and Grandma said, “It made her happy”.]
Around 5:30 this morning John went out trolling with Bo Bush. They didn’t catch anything. Well today Bev feels a little better but looks like a greased pig. She has baby oil gel all over my arms and legs with mosquito spray on top of that. We think we have spotted the wire fish basket. Bev put on her snorkel, mask, and fins and went to look for it. Found the fish basket about 20 feet away from the restaurant in 8 feet deep water. It had been munched on and mangled with only 2 small pieces of the parrot fish still inside – into the trash can it goes. Later, while fishing we saw another 6 foot nurse shark suddenly appear from under the pier. What an amazing sight. One of Bo’s and Marta’s daughters, Brenda – 12, and a granddaughter, Michelle – 7, and Marta’s mom (who we just called Grandma) came for the weekend. [Bev’s account of the evening – That night John needed fish bait, so I asked Brenda if she knew how to catch crabs. She said yes, so off we went with our flashlights down to the beach. It was Grandma, Michelle, Brenda, and I (John new better than go). We caught a few small ones then Grandma started out on a path towards the jungle. Mind you it is pitch dark and I am wearing shorts and flip flops. We found some big crabs out there. We would whack them with our stick and then put them in a bucket. They were everywhere. On our way back, on the trail towards the beach, we were shining our flashlights and hitting the crabs out of the trees. These huge crabs were climbing up the trunks of the trees. We had a great time screaming and laughing. They taught me well. When we got back to the dock – John was reeling in a small stingray about 2 feet wide. Grandma gave me her machete to cut off the stingray’s barb. We threw him back in to the ocean. Grandma cleaned the crabs on the dock and said we were going to have soup in the morning. John took a few crabs to use as bait. “Oh what a night, late July back in 2014”.]
We had another wonderful breakfast – scrambled eggs, refried beans, slices of cheddar cheese, and toast. Bev has been eaten alive by flying sand fleas. From our last visit she thought if she was in the water the sand fleas couldn’t get to her. She was wrong – so now she is miserable. Both of us caught a parrot fish. Of course John wants to use them for bait. John kept them in a wire basket under the pier. Bev also caught an angelfish, one of those black and yellow – beautiful aquarium fish. You are not supposed to catch them I guess. Oops! We had a good day – we had conch for dinner. It was Bev’s first time, John ate it last time we were here – chewy yet satisfying. Tonight while John was out fishing, around 6:30 pm, it had just gotten dark. The sky was clear with beautiful stars. The wind was coming from the east to the west – a very stiff wind. When out of the west came a very large dark cloud that was square shaped, the only cloud in the sky. It came out of a crystal clear sky against a very stiff wind. It appeared to be moving towards him and there was something weird about the cloud. As the cloud got closer the more John just knew something wasn’t right and at that point he felt it was something spiritual from the enemy. He felt very uneasy. John started praying against the enemy. He prayed for protection and God’s power. As he prayed the cloud stopped moving and after about 10 minutes it began to dissipate. After another 20 minutes it was almost completely gone. As John continued to fish, about 9 pm there was a big splash at the boat dock. It startled John as he thought that one of the dogs fell in or perhaps some person had walked up in the dark and fell in. There was a lot of thrashing going on in the water. He went over with his flashlight to see what or who had fallen in. He saw water splashed up on the dock everywhere. After realizing there was no dog or person, he saw that the wire fish basket containing a parrot fish was gone. A barracuda had attached the fish basket and ripped it off the boat dock. Then about 9:30 pm John looks out in the water about 15 feet and could see the outline or shadow of a fish about 6 feet long. He then flashed his flashlight on it but couldn’t see it. When the light was off he could see it again. The fish turned back and now is only about 8 feet from the dock. Again, John turned on his flashlight and he could not see it. The fish then swam out in to the darkness. Between the cloud, sand fleas, and barracuda we knew the spiritual battle had begun. Bev had gotten eaten by sand fleas – spiritually we feel that if you don’t have the right protection (in this case baby oil gel and bug spray) the enemy will eat you alive. Bev thought she was safe in the water, but what she didn’t know is that they can fly. She didn’t know everything she needed to know about the enemy before she got out there. John felt like the dark cloud was the enemy trying to intimidate us and letting us know that it was aware of our presents in Honduras.
